This is..... me cheating!

So really, I'm not the best participant in the This is... meme. First I gatecrash weeks late, then I missed the next week (I don't have an inspiration board and didn't do my homework for it as I went away for the weekend) and now... I cheat!

So This is.... looking IN my front door. To be totally honest, looking out my front door is so depressing. All there is, is a carpark, a narrow street and the wall of the house across the road. Before coming to Japan, many people have this image of it being a beautiful country, which it really is in parts. The problem is, for the most parts, the suburbs are ugly. There is no sense of design and as space is at such a premium, houses and apartments are built on tiny blocks, so often have no room for a garden. Oh how I miss trees and the sound of birds in the morning.

My back door wouldn't work either - we don't have one. I was baffled for days of what to do, until yesterday when my friend came over and did this lovely ikebana arrangement. I thought I'd show inside my front door. Sorry Brooke! It's a great theme and I'm really looking forward to seeing everyone else's view.



The first thing you may notice is that the front door opens outwards. This is a space saving design, architects don't have to allow an area for a door swing (most of the other doors in our apartment are paper sliding doors). What the swinging-out design doesn't allow for is safety. I had a salesman come to my apartment once, late at night and I couldn't get him to leave. I couldn't shut the door on him as he was between it and myself.

I think most people know that in Japan, you have to take your shoes of before you enter. What is difficult for most people to understand is how clearly defined the shoes-on and shoes-off area really is. The light area you can see on the floor is for shoes on. From there you step out of your shoes onto the darker area which in our apartment, is ever so slightly raised. You would never step on that light area without your shoes. It's funny how ingrained it's become to me now. When I have visitors come and stay and they step on the dark area with their shoes on, or outside with them off I cringe. I yelled at my dad once because he tried to walk in to take his shoes of sitting on the sofa, but didn't have the heart to tell him off later for going outside in his socks to sit on the stairs to put them on again.

The brown cupboard you can see is our shoe cupboard. As shoes are not allowed indoors, this is where they must live. Mine is full of more space saving items to make room for them all to fit, but as you see, my collection is starting to overflow. The big clodhoppers are my husband's of course.

So next week, I promise to try to stick to the rules!

Change of Scenery - The Before Shots

My husband has moved out. Don't worry, it's a good thing! My dear, sweet husband has moved out of our shared office area to give me my own studio.

We've had such a busy day. It had a lovely start with a lie-in this morning, something we haven't had the time to do for a while and then Wayne cooked delicious spinach and olive omelets for breakfast. We were then ready to attack the apartment and make it a more livable space.

Space. That's the important word. Space. Living in a Japanese apartment means that we have a serious lack of it. As my business has grown, we've begun to outgrow our home and it has been looking more and more like a warehouse rather than the place of zen that I'd prefer. I have trouble creating in chaos.

The first picture shows what was supposed to be my paper working area. The small orange, kidney-shaped table seems to attract all sorts of bits and pieces that I'm sure then breed in the night. When ever I go to use it, it takes me half an hour to tidy up and by then, the inspiration has gone.

The picture at the bottom shows how the other side of the room looked this morning. That small table in the corner is my computer desk that also starred as my sewing table. Sewing was an activity that had to be planned and things packed up first. Much of my measuring and cutting had to be done on the ironing board.

My husband had a corner directly behind my chair with his computer and I have to say, his pile of mess.

Well, I'm happy to say, that has all changed now. My husband has moved his computer desk into what was our living area and what was our dining alcove is now the living area. It's certainly cosy but it works. Much of my stock has joined my husband in his office space, though that area still needs to be worked on.

Shopping to find a decent desk for me to work from was not such an easy task. We drove from shop to shop for hours in our town and the next to find one that wasn't coffee table height. Much of Japanese furniture is close to the floor and many apartments would not contain a single chair. My growing grumpiness was alleviated by the discovery of some Cadbury's chocolate in an import store in one of the shopping centres. We found a desk in the end and Wayne went straight to putting it together.

I'm still setting things up and hope to get to the shops again tomorrow for some more storage solutions. I'll then put some photos up of the finished product.

Well, I'd better get back to it!